Government calls for Darwin Turf Club board to resign, or threatens to sack them
Chief Minister Michael Gunner has vowed the findings of corrupt conduct by the ICAC on five individuals, including his own former chief of staff, will ‘never happen again’.
Northern Territory
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CHIEF Minister Michael Gunner has urged the entire board of the Darwin Turf Club to resign after a bombshell ICAC report into the construction of its grandstand and promised it was a situation that “will never happen again”.
The government would move legislation on urgency to sack board members if their resignations aren’t forthcoming.
In a tense press conference on Friday morning, Mr Gunner repeatedly insisted he had no knowledge of any of the workings of the deal while it was being made.
This is despite his former chief of staff Alf Leonardi being among five people against whom he ICAC made improper conduct findings.
Mr Gunner said Mr Leonardi, who has left the Chief Minister’s office since the scandal erupted, was currently working within the NT Education Department and he had asked the Public Employment Commissioner to “consider his employment status”.
“The ICAC has looked extensively at this and has made no findings against any Minister or the cabinet, and has made it clear that there were a number of individuals who behaved in a manner that breaches the ICAC act,” he said.
“They made clear findings of misconduct against Mr Leonardi and they made a criticism of unsatisfactory conduct against the department.”
“They’ve made findings of improper conduct and corrupt conduct by the Darwin Turf Club.”
Mr Gunner also said he had accepted in-principle the 18 recommendations made in the report.
The government would also reduce funding to the Darwin Turf Club by $12m over an unspecified amount of time, to recover money from the incident.
The Darwin Turf Club has been contacted for comment.
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